"I have a grand story for you two tonight," said grandfather frog. "Have I ever told you about the time I pretended to be a king?"
"No, Grandhoppa, you haven't! Please tell us!"
"Alright, well, one day I was minding my own down by the river, and in the distance I saw a massive tiger. I knew he was hungry; he was practically trying to attack patches of grass just hoping there would be an animal there for him to eat! I was terrified, but I hoped to figure out a way to trick the tiger into not eating me. I shouted, 'Hey Tiger! Where ya going?' and the tiger said, as I knew he would, that we was going to find something to eat, but now that he had found me, he was going to eat me!"
"That's terrifying, Grandhoppa! What did you do?" exclaimed the little frogs, bundled up under their covers in fear.
"Well, I puffed out my chest, stood up on my back legs, and said 'Well Mr. Tiger, you are talking to the King of the Frogs!'"
The little frogs burst into laughter.
"But it worked!" said the old frog. "I dared him that I could jump further over the bank than he could. Of course he accepted the challenge, and when he jumped, I grabbed his tail and it flew me much further than where he jumped! You should have seen that tiger's face, he was stunned! He had no idea how I had jumped that far!"
The little froggies burst into another fit of laughter.
"I dared him to another competition; I told him we should both vomit."
"Ewww!" cried the frogs in disgust.
"But when I threw up, I just spit a little of his hairs out of my mouth, and he couldn't throw up anything! He asked how I did that and I told him that I was so mighty and strong that I gobbled up a tiger the other day, and I would do the same to him if he didn't leave me alone... He sped off quicker than ever!"
The grand frogs continued to laugh at the crazy story.
"Oh, but then, you should have seen it, he came back! But this time he was with a fox, and they had tied their tails together! It was so hilarious. I pretended I was still the Frog King, and said to the fox,
'Oh hello fox, thank you for coming; you hadn't paid your toll to me today, so that must be my dinner you've got tied to your tail?' The tiger's eyes tripled in size and he sprinted away so quickly that the poor fox could hardly keep up; he was just being yanked and dragged behind this terrified and fooled tiger. Goodness knows they are still tied together and running, even today."
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| Frog King Source: Clip Art |
Author's Note: This story, originally called "The Tiger and the Frog," is from the book Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton (1925). The story is the same, only I wrote it in a first person format as a grandfather frog telling his grandchildren frogs a bedtime story. The original story has a little more information about what was going on in the mind of the tiger, but the storyline is the same! I hope you enjoyed reading it!
I really liked your story! The format you told it in was adorable – I liked how the grandfather frog told the story with so much humor in order to entertain his grandkids. The grandfather was pretty clever – most people in that situation would not have called attention to themselves when danger was lurking just to trick danger! I didn’t expect the tiger to come back, especially after he had “learned” that the frog ate tigers. The frog was smart about how to get rid of the tiger again. Anyways, well done!
ReplyDeleteThis story is so cute. I could see it being a story in a children's box. Great use of creativity and telling the story from the point of view of a grandfather frog to his little grandchildren froggies. I love that you used the name grandhoppa for the grandpa! So funny. You did a great job of creating excitement from the grandfroggies insisting the grandhoppa tell them a story. And that poor tiger, he got outsmarted by a frog! Overall, great job!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a cute story. I love that the grandfroggies call him grandhoppa! Very clever. I think telling the story from the grandpa's point of view was a really good idea - it's such a grandpa type story! I was surprised the tiger came back and was still so terrified of something smaller than one of his paws haha. Good job!
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